Playing with Questions

Preparing one of the plenary sessions for the recent Teaching Professor Conference provided me the opportunity to do some more work on questions, which if you’re a regular reader of this blog you will recognize as an ongoing interest of mine for more than a year now. In fact, the post on May 28, 2014 is a reprint of an article I wrote for the March 2013 issue of The Teaching Professor newsletter. It represents some of my early thinking on the topic, including ways of emphasizing questions in our teaching and modeling good question types for our students. The ability to ask good questions is often an underrated and underdeveloped skill, yet questions can play such a significant role in learning when used properly.

Could we increase the effectiveness of questions if we “played” a bit more with them? I am thinking of playing with questions in several different senses starting with having fun with them. This means not always (ever?) using questions for punitive purposes, such as questions to see who’s done the reading or to call out someone who’s not paying attention, but asking good questions; ones that get after an interesting aspect of the content or confront long held assumptions and then just letting the questions hang out there. “Here’s an interesting question…” “Have you ever thought about this…” “What if x, y, and z aren’t true?”

A good question does its best work in that space after it’s asked and before it’s answered. In that space a good question can become a mental jump starter. It gets the brain’s motor turning over, catching, and sometimes roaring to life. So, if we play with that space in between, lengthening it by repeating or rephrasing the question, lengthening it with comments about its importance and intrigue, or lengthening the space with silence, chances are good that more mental motors will get started. If a question is truly important and central, why not hang it over an entire class session or content unit? Often we don’t give questions the time they need to work. Einstein explains. “It’s not that I’m so smart but I stay with the questions much longer.”

Then there is the sense of play as in chasing something around, playing with it before the final capture. Teachers can do this by assembling a collection of answers before designating a right or best one. A bit subversive? Yes, the teacher is playing off the belief that many students hold—questions have right answers, typically just one. For those students, some mental discomfort occurs when it appears that a question has several viable answers. They listen closely until they find out which one is correct. For other students, a collection of possible answers can be intriguing. They work on the options, trying to figure out for themselves which answer works best or if there just might be multiple answers. You can also engage in this sort of subversive play with comments like, “Why don’t you put this question in your notes. It’s one you’ll want to think about when you’re studying for the exam.” Or, more directly, “I’ve been known to put questions like this one on the exam.” Or, “Here’s a question I’ve been pondering for years.”

You can also play around with questions much like furniture gets moved around in the front room. You’re trying out different arrangements so you can see how they look and feel. With questions this might mean a set of queries that plays off that collection of answers. Or maybe you move a set of questions around and within a content chunk as a means of organizing that material or showing with questions how parts relate. Steven Quatrano (described online as a software engineer, management consultant, and teacher) has an interesting thought here: “Through questions we can organize our thinking around what we don’t know.”

I talked with someone at the conference who pushed back on this notion of playing with questions. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea. It could make students think questions are frivolous, not the serious inquires that lead to understanding and truth.” I agree that it’s possible to trivialize the importance of questions, but I don’t think that’s the sense of play I’m describing here. What I’m proposing are ways that demonstrate the driving force questions can be in learning—hoping it’s a process that motivates students to start asking themselves (and us) interesting, provocative queries.

Thanks Maryellen. My students love it when I play with questions. I find the word "imagine" very helpful. Sometimes I will ask "imagine" questions contrary to the fact. Other times I ask "imagine" questions where a historic character or a writer is brought out of the past into the 21st century. And particularly powerful are "imagine" questions where we imagine how the world would be different if we were able to put into practice at a community, national, and international level the ideas dealt with in class.

David Skaer

I believe questions are overlooked by students and profs alike. I often give practice exams to my students, and they love them. They help solidification (is that a word???) of the content. I also do the Jeopardy material when I am able, and students have to ask the questions.

Appreciate your article…students need to learn to ask questions when they study. Modeling certainly should help.

I respect and appreciate your interest in the art of asking constructive, stimulating questions. However, since you are a member of the teaching profession, I would advise you to put your best educational foot forward and at least read through your posts before you publish them.

Please note:

1. “… but asking good questions; ones that get after an interesting aspect of the content or confront long held assumptions and then just letting the questions hang out there. “Here’s interesting question…”
• The semi-colon after “asking good questions” does not make sense. It should be a colon or else use just a comma setting off the appositive that follows.
• The quote following “…hang out there.” should read “Here’s AN (or THE) interesting question…”

2. “…when you’re studying for the exam.” Or, more directly, “I’ve been known to put questions like this one on the exam.” Or, “Here’s a question I’ve been pondering for years.”
• why the artifice of breaking up what should be one sentence into three. Would you encourage students to break up sentences because they might be too long, if that is indeed the reason you’ve chosen to put the last two quotes in separate sentences.
I would suggest that you just continue using commas to separate your examples. “…you’re studying for the exam,” or, more directly, “I’ve been known to put questions like this one on the exam,” or, “Here’s a question I’ve been pondering for years.”

No, I’m not a teacher, I’m a journalist, but it’s upsetting when teachers of all people do not take care in re-reading their published material. I suggest you read your posts out loud before publishing which makes errors much more obvious.

Thank you again for an otherwise very constructive post.

Pilgrim

As far as I can see, your only legitimate complaint is the omission of "an." which I assume to be inadvertent. The rest of your issues are basically style complaints – to which you are entitled. But I think you need to get over yourself.

Nicola Winstanley

One of my favourite responses to give a "correct" answer is "and what else?" It asks students to look again and look differently. There are very few questions of serious inquiry that have a singular and objective answer.

Esther Ayandokun

Questions that are well framed make the students think deeply. Effective teaching is enhanced with good questions and answers.